A paging device is typically a portable, receive only, voice communication device. Paging devices were originally developed in the 1970's to address the need for a portable radio small enough to be worn by a person and only activated when needed. Paging devices continue to be utilized today and are oftentimes carried by fire and rescue personnel as well as other agencies, such as utilities and private contractors. Paging devices advantageously offer a small, compact form factor that can be carried on a person and usually left on a silent “standby” mode. When the unit is activated, the pager sounds a tone or vibrating alert at the pager's speaker, followed by an announcement from a dispatcher alerting the user of a situation. After activation, the pager remains in an “open” position much like a scanner, and continuously broadcasts any audio transmissions on that channel until the unit is reset back into a silent “standby” mode (depending on programming selections) or it resets back to the “standby” mode after a set amount of time. A pager is a receive-only unit, not a transceiver, and thus cannot transmit.
During typical pager operation, when an incoming radio frequency (RF) carrier is present on a channel, the speaker is turned on while the message/page is being recorded and played out. Having both the speaker and page recording active when the carrier drops results in a condition called open channel noise. Open channel noise can be considered annoying to some users.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a paging device that would eliminate the open channel noise condition.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.